The death penalty and public information on its use

Abstract

At the beginning of 2011, 139 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. In Death Sentences and Executions 2010, published on 28 March 2011, Amnesty International noted that at least 23 countries carried out executions in 2010 and that the majority of these states use it in violation of international human rights law and standards. International law has enumerated, among other items, what crimes and which individuals may not be subject to the death penalty, and what safeguards must be accorded to all defendants in death penalty trials. An important element to ensuring these restrictions and safeguards are met and arguably to move the world toward the desirable goal of abolition, which the United Nations Human Rights Committee stated was strongly suggested by Article 6 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, is the regular reporting on the use of the death penalty by nation states.

Keywords:

• death penalty
• international standards
• data collection

Notes

UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment no.6 of the (30/04/1982), para.6.

Amnesty International, ‘Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries’, http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/abolitionist-and-retentionist-countries

Amnesty International, ‘Death Sentences and Executions 2008’ (Amnesty International 2009).

Amnesty International, ‘Death Sentences and Executions 2009’ (Amnesty International 2010).

Amnesty International, ‘Death Sentences and Executions 2010’ (Amnesty International 2011).

UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment no.6 of the (30/04/1982), para.6.

United Nations General Assembly Third Committee, Summary record of the 42nd meeting (A/C.3/63/SR.42).

United Nations Human Rights Council, Fourteenth session, Report of the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Review on Iran, (A/HRC/14/12).

Court of Appeal of Kenya, ‘Judgment of the Court in Godfrey Ngotho Mutiso v. Republic of Kenya’, 30 July 2010.

Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary executions, (E/CN.4/2005/7, 2004), para. 87.

Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, (E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2, 2003) para.65.

The most comprehensive study carried out by the UN (E/AC.57/1988/CRP.7) on the relation between the death penalty and homicide rates concluded: ‘… research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment. Such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole still gives no positive support to the deterrent hypothesis.’

Amnesty International, ‘Death Sentences and Executions 2010’ (Amnesty International 2011).